2040 A letter from home

Capt B, one Marine's view in Iraq, describes what it is like to get a letter from home.

"But what I will tell you about is the smell inside an envelope from home. Where you can actually smell some of the things that were there when the letter was written. You can close your eyes and recognize the smell of the familiar little one who wrote you the letter. You can pick up on familiar surrounding’s like the pledge cleaner that was used on the table where the letter was written on or remember where the flowers are in your home that are neatly placed and accompany your letter. The smell of the room where the letter was written in cuts through the familiar burning tire trash smell you’re currently surrounded in. It’s a nice treat to get mail regardless who it is from. You get the letter here in a country that doesn’t even have a mail system. It might have been a week old which is better than past wars where it could have been months before you received a piece of mail, it’s a special piece of home."

2039 A silly meme for Monday

I saw this at Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day.

1. My uncle once: served bravely in WWII, but died in the CBI theater due to someone else's stupidity.

2. Never in my life: have I lost a permanent tooth, but the crowns are increasing. I even have my wisdom teeth.

3. When I was five: I attended kindergarten in Alameda, CA.

4. High School is: where I learned most of what I know of useful, lifelong skills, especially typing and playing trombone.

5. My parents are: (were) honest, hard working, loyal, disciplined, and they stayed married over 65 years despite one being a Republican and one a Democrat.

6. I once met: Michael Jackson in a hotel in Columbus, OH. He was such a cute little boy. He probably doesn't remember.

7. There's this girl I know who: wears blue lipstick to look different and "with it" but looks like a corpse. Considering the number of dead people in the world, that's not terribly original.

8. Once, at a bar: (last Friday night, in fact) I saw about 20 women gather for an after work party squeezing around two of those round tall tables.

9. Last night: my daughter dropped by after borrowing our SUV so her husband could deliver her new washing machine.

10. Next time I go to church: I will hear a sermon on glorification, according to the schedule announced eariler.

11. When I turn my head left, I see: flashes of light that aren't there. It's called po- post- something I've forgotten, but it happens.

12. When I turn my head right, I see: my books, family photos, phone, TV and cd player.

13. How many days until my birthday?: You mean there's more?

14. If I was a character written by Shakespeare I'd be: someone's mother.

15. By this time next year: I hope I've visited Finland and Russia.

16. A better name for me would be: In Latin my name means pattern or model, which I translate to mean "follow his woman, she's never wrong," so why would I change it?

17. I have a hard time understanding: why people enjoy being late. They are perceived as rude, not important, which I think is their goal.

18. If I ever go back to school I: would be an artist.

19. You know I like you if: I want to hang out with you on Friday nights.

20. If I won an award, the first person I'd thank would be: my parents.

21. Take my advice: always.

22. My ideal breakfast is: an apple--Braeburn, but Honey Crisp when they are in season, quartered then sliced into about 12 pieces, with the skin on.

23. If you visit my hometown: you won't see much, but it has an interesting history in printing and publishing.

24. Why won't someone: find a good rest home for Teddy Kennedy.

25. If you spend the night at my house: I'll put out fresh towels and change the sheets in the guest bedroom.

26. I'd stop my wedding: if the groom didn't show up.

27. The world could do without: one more salty, crispy snack food high in fat and calories.

28. I'd rather lick the belly of a cockroach than: watch a film made by Michael Moore. (I used Eamonn's here--sounded perfect)

29. Paper clips are more useful than: i-Pods. (the keyword being "useful")

30. If I do anything well, it is: blogging frequently.

31. And by the way: I have 6 other blogs for you to visit. One isn't on blogspot.

I won't tag you but this is fun to do as quickly as you can with the first thing that comes to mind.

2038 Homeless--can we find a better word?

Dr. Helen addresses the topic of homelessness in this post. She comments on what I've often thought--not having a "home" really isn't the problem, is it? It's as though (in their bleeding hearts) if someone stepped up and paid the rent, it would all go away. I remember when the do-gooders put the mentally ill and retarded on the street in the 70s (with a temporary stop in group homes or half-way houses). I remember talking at church one day with a former pastor who was so excited that the blind, deaf and retarded people (i.e., they had all three disabilities) he worked with were finally going to have their "right" to live in society:

"No, it is not a "war" against the homeless. It is poor forethought and planning for the homeless when good Samaritans opened the mental institutions and turned the mentally ill out onto the streets--a large portion of the homeless are mentally ill-in some studies up to 50%. In addition, the gentrification of downtowns by urban yuppies and city planners caused a rush of condeming, closing or knocking down Single Room Occupancy Housing (SRO) which was devastating to the poor who lived in cheap housing. For example, in New York City in 1960, there were 640,000 people living in SRO's and rooming houses and by 1990, there were only 137,000. No wonder there are so many homeless there." Dr. Helen

2037 Bits of metal and plastic in my life

My life has been falling apart. A few days before Christmas one of the kitchen cabinet doors swung open 90 degrees--all by itself, and wouldn't close. We don't know if the house settled after 30 years, or what happened. To keep it closed, I tied a piece of dental floss around the knob and tied it to the coffee carafe thermos which I pushed under the cabinet next to the wall. The weight of the carafe would hold the door shut, but if I would forget and open the door quickly, the carafe would go swinging into the air and smack me, or knock something on the floor. So I attached a bright orange sticky to the dental floss so I could see it. Would you believe that you can get used to dental floss and orange paper dangling from your cabinets and not even notice them after awhile?

Then on Christmas Eve, one of my molars broke in half during my nice family dinner and I apparently swallowed it. The old filling held. Of course, it was a 3 day holiday, so it was Dec. 30 before I got into the dentist's chair, got the old filling removed, and a temporary to cover it until I got the "real temporary" crown today. And of course, I had to start all over on my dental deductible because now it is 2006. Some of my fillings are older than my dentist, so I think we'll be having this conversation often.

Then Friday night about 9 p.m. my glasses fell in my lap. A part had fallen off. I found my 2003 glasses (by feeling) which will work in a pinch and hoped the optometrist's office was open on Saturday.

As of this moment, we have fixed the cabinet door by putting a stick-on magnet on the trim piece and building up the screw on the back side of the handle with a small washer so it will connect with the magnet; today I got a very shiny, bright temporary crown and will get the porcelain crown in two weeks--but the sun is shining (as it will do 37% of the days in Ohio) and I'll blind you if I smile; and Saturday morning the optometrist's staff was able to fix my glasses in about two minutes.

For now, we are pasted and patched back together.

2036 My librarian's hat

Let me pause here to put on my librarian's hat. If you want to check further than internet rehash of the story on paternal age and genetic diseases (my blog 2034), or any medical story for that matter, there are a number of medical journals that have free text online, where you can get the whole story plus the references. This story, for instance goes all the way back to the 1950s when they first suspected the sperm and age of the father were involved in defects.

However, you might see this:

Only to click on it and see this: This item is restricted. Subscribers have full text access and guests have some free access. SIGN IN or see below for access options.

Well, be sure to scroll down to look at your options. JAMA and all its other journal archives are free AFTER a year. So it is worth your while to register so you can take advantage. I can go on-line at Ohio State as faculty emeritus, however, this option actually is easier with a "remember me" option. You may not have access to a university or large public library that carries this, but now you can look at them anyway.

Some journal registrations are a pain in the rear, but JAMA's wasn't too bad.

2035 Republicans may disagree

but I think it is time to get the TV cameras out of the judicial hearing rooms. Yes, I know you love to see Democrats making fools of themselves, but it is an embarrassment for all of us. That Kennedy/Biden dog and pony show. Yuk. Would any of that have happened without the opportunity for camera face time? Supporters of the candidate (of either party) posture and preen and try to make him/her look like God's gift to our Constitution, and the opposition refuses to look at his/her record and instead drone on about the nanny's grandmother's history and high school fraternities. Somewhere I read that only 14% of the nation watched--I think that is a stretch unless you're counting click throughs.

Peggy Noonan actually found Biden endearing! "The great thing about Joe Biden during the Alito hearings, the reason he is, to me, actually endearing, is that as he speaks, as he goes on and on and spins his long statements, hypotheticals, and free associations--as he demonstrates yet again, as he did in the Roberts hearings and even the Thomas hearings, that he is incapable of staying on the river of a thought, and is constantly lured down tributaries from which he can never quite work his way back--you can see him batting the little paddles of his mind against the weeds, trying desperately to return to the river but not remembering where it is, or where it was going. I love him. He's human, like a garrulous uncle after a drink."

Sounds like she's looking for a paddle on the same river of thought.

2034 Society won't want to hear this

For years we've known the dangers of older women and pregnancy, and now it appears the older father presents it's own set of problems--genetic.

"There are now approximately 20 different disorders that are correlated with paternal age. . . The risk of having a child who later develops schizophrenia is about 1 in 110 when a father is age 40--similar to a 40 year old woman's risk of having a child with Down's Syndrome." JAMA v.291,no.14(2004):1683-1685

An interview with Dr. Dolores Malaspina who has done extensive research on paternal genetic birth defects in Medscape.com. In the US, the age of the father is often not even recorded, but Israel, where she has done her research, has more detailed information in birth registries.

schizophrenia

2033 Win a prize from Cordelya

Cordelya's blog turned up on the new member list of Homespun bloggers this week, so I took a look. She likes to pose questions. This week she is talking about "lifehacks," or those techniques that reduce life's problems or chaos. Here's her proposal.

What is your best lifehack? Blog about it, tell me about it, and pass it on, and you might be the lucky person to receive a $15 iTunes e-certificate. Here's what you do:

Write a blog/journal entry about your best lifehack
Include the following little snippet of code in your entry:
Cordelya wants to know your best lifehack, and she's giving away a $15 iTunes e-certificate to a random contributor. Find out how to enter here.

Connect your entry to this entry by trackback if you have that capability, or post a comment on this entry with a link back to your entry so I can go read it.

So rather than make a separate entry (I don't even know what an iTune is so doubt that I need the certificate), I'll just pass along my tip (lifehack) for budgeting your way out of a financial mess: tithe your income to your church or synagogue. I don't know anyone who does that who can't make the month meet the bills. I don't know if it is a spiritual principle, or if it is you just have nothing left over for foolishness and thus develop good spending habits, but it works.

However, I did read in the WSJ the other day about a program called "Individual Development Accounts" which have helped the poor buy homes, start businesses and save for college. In two of the examples, the poor people in the program found money to invest by--are you ready for this--giving up cable TV, manicures, and cell phone. I love it. Only in America!

2032 Serves Twelve--or two if you're lucky

The weather has turned cold again in Ohio after several days of balmy 60s. Yesterday the wind blowing across the sipping hole in my Caribou cup played the Buckeye Fight Song.

So it is time to think about comfort food--Bread Pudding. Here's my blog about my search for the perfect recipe from last January. I'm going to go check the frig and pantry and see if I have the ingredients.

bread pudding

2031 Would more aid change things?

"Under President George W. Bush, America has dou­bled its development assistance to $19 billion in 2004, including tripling its assistance to sub-Saharan Africa since 2000. It has expanded access to the U.S. market through the African Growth and Opportuni­ties Act. The U.S. is the world’s largest humanitarian aid donor, providing $3.3 billion in 2003. The U.S. is the world’s largest source of bilateral and multilateral support to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other infectious diseases, including $2.4 billion in interna­tional HIV/AIDS programs.[2]

Yet the U.S. is often criticized for not providing enough resources for development. The basis for this criticism is the theory that if only aid flows increased, developing countries would achieve economic growth and development. Economic analysis and the histori­cal record do not support this reasoning."

Calls for a new "Marshall Plan" over look the fact that sub-Saharan Africa has received a Marshall Plan several times over. Some third of the countries receiving regular aid since the 1960s have actually gone backward. "To put this in perspective, if all of the aid spent over those four decades were gathered together in today’s dollars and simply handed out to the 719 million people of sub-Saharan Africa, per capita GDP would increase by over $756— more than doubling its current per capita GDP."

Read this for the history of development aid, and the new proposal for a challenge account.

2030 Marine says they're winning

There’s an interview at Blackfive with a proud Marine, Capt B, you’ll not want to miss. Not only does he think his job is great, he’s got some heart touching stories about the work he does, like sharing a Pepsi with a little Iraqi girl. But the closer is the best:

What message, ignored or downplayed by the MSM, about our role in Iraq do you think it is most important for the American people to hear?

WOW, well its actually very simple but is the focus point for both the supporters and anti supporters of the war. We are winning and doing a just thing here. We are so close to this thing taking off on its own and the Iraqi people taking the reins. I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t happen in the next year. For example the other day in Ramadi, a suicide vest attacker blew himself up in the crowed and although wounding and killing numerous Iraqi’s and Coalition service members, they simply got back in line to be accepted in the service. That wouldn’t have happened a year ago. They would have fled and we would be back to the drawing board. You got to war a chance and with the kick butt support I’ve seen from the American people we will wrap this thing up and get the hell outa dodge, but only when its time to.

2029 Daniel Henninger the Wordsmith

He's a male Ann Coulter. I swear. "Reasonable people can disagree on the views of these conservative jurists, but first we need reasonable people." The word list for the hearings:

Kennedy: Grand hulk, ranting, tilting his Princeton windmill

Biden: magical mystery tours of his life

Feinstein: reciting staff written questions she didn't understand

Schumer: going no where with a mother-in-law story

Graham: puckish

Democrats: exhausted and befuddled, flat-lined, hostage taking, scorched earth politics, laugh track, incoherent

tactics: borking, ranting, smears, moral punctiliousness

hearings: Roman circus, judicial filabuster with the nuclear option, contest with propaganda, same swamp (as the Rehnquist confirmation hearings)

left wing opposition groups: frustrated

Alito: largest presence, mental firepower, thoughtful remarks, discussing law which puts Democrats on unfamiliar ground.

Alito hearings

$38.00 per gallon

for coffee makes gasoline look cheap.

This is from Blogger Boy at HIStalk, a blog about health care information technology. In this guest article, the writer is talking about the expenses of a vendor at a health information convention, in this case, the HIMSS Annual Conference, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. Even though not going first class, this vendor’s booth cost almost $190,000, and he gives a fairly close break-out of the expenses, like $2500 for coffee and cookies and $565 for a keg of beer plus the cost of people to serve these items. He goes on to explain about the cookies and coffee:.

“In order to give the Otis Spunkmeyer cookies away in your booth, you have to rent the machine from the convention center. There is a $500 charge for the machine and a $100 delivery fee. In addition you must have a certified cookie attendant at $80 an hour for a 4 hour minimum. No, making your own cookies for years and years does NOT qualify you to be a certified cookie attendant. For that price you receive 275 cookies. I’ll do the math for you: that comes out to be $3.35 per cookie. You can get additional cases of cookies (160 in each case) for $200 ($1.25 each). Now I like cookies as much as the next person but that seems a bit high. The coffee that just seems to go hand-in-hand with the cookies is $38 a gallon with a 3 gallon minimum. I don’t know what that would work out to be a cup but I can guarantee you it is a touch more than Starbucks.”

I suppose after you’ve paid over $100,000 to get the booth and rent the space, you don’t sweat the cookies. During my years as a medical librarian, I munched my way through a lot of freebies in Boston, Chicago, Seattle, San Antonio and Kansas City while looking at software, books, new journals and bibliographies. We Vet librarians would compare notes with each other on where to get the best book bags and t-shirts and who offered the yummiest breakfasts. I knew these giant hotel exhibit areas cost the vendors, and that the chocolate party we had at the top of the John Hancock Building in Chicago must have cost somebody a pretty penny, but I was still thinking “free,” instead of “add this to the cost” I’ll pay for any health related product and service I buy--to say nothing of never learning about the small companies that couldn't pay that.

Government benefits are like that too, aren’t they? Free, until you do the math.
Full article here.

2027 The Friday Paint Along

Although it isn't exactly a New Year's Resolution, I do want to get back to my painting. After all, that's why we did the massive move, repacking and reorganization in December, so my drawing table could have north light. Now I'd better make good on it. My husband continues the reorganization as he is cataloging his slides--going back to the 60s.

So here I am, all ready for art class. The apron is a heavy white canvas fabric (100% cotton made in Canada) with black cats, a gift from my sister. I put this on about an hour before so I don't forget or lose my nerve. There's my red bag bought at the Port Clinton Wal-Mart for $3 a few years ago--love that store. Inside are all sorts of goodies, like my favorite brushes in side the cardboard tube of a Reynoldswrap box, with small straight edge and erasers. And smallish pieces of good quality watercolor paper--I like 300 lb., but will use 140 if that's all I have tucked inside a tablet so they won't bend. Also a file folder of reference stuff, mostly pulled from magazines--but just for practice. And I have a small clear plastic zippered make-up kit, also purchased at Wal-Mart that holds a little color pan, watercolor pencils, color chart, and itsy-bitsy pieces of w.c. paper--postcard size. I use the small plastic bottles that came with it for water, and the soap dish for the w.c. tubes. Not that I ever paint on location, but with this I could. Inside that I also have reference photos and small sketches.

So if is off to paint with my friends and take a break from blogging.

2026 As best I can

I'll avoid all the Friday the Thirteenth references as best I can, but Nathan Bierma, whose column on language I enjoy on subscription and in the Trib, says that phrase "as best as is either a grammatical error or an exception to a firm rule of English syntax."

"As best as" is striking, because "best" is the superlative form of "well," and English doesn't use any other superlative in this phrase. We say "as much as" but not "as most as"; "as red as" but not "as reddest as." The phrase "as best as I can" may be a mix-up of "as well as I can" and "the best that I can."

After talking to a few experts about this, who agreed it isn't standard, but isn't a serious problem, he went high tech and googled the expression finding some form of it going all the way back to 1377. Standard or not, it's got a bit of age.

Bierma's column here.

2024 Ted Kennedy's dog

Someone e-mailed me today after reading my Ted Kennedy scum bag post that he had a dog named Splash, and wasn't that really an odd name--you know, considering his history.

I thought it must be an urban legend, but looked it up. Of course, you still never know--this is after all the internet we're talking about--where a dog might be posting and you'd have no way to know. But here's the story at Anchoress.

2023 United Way

Although I retired five years ago, the Office of Human Resources at the university keeps my name label current--they send me notices about health care programs for which I'm not eligible, and "Bucks for Charity" (a United Way Campaign for the university community) booklets. Before I toss the booklet for 2005 (why is it coming in 2006?), I browse a bit through what I'm not going to support. Inside I find the campaign was Oct. 10-Dec. 2 (lost in the Christmas rush?), and that it includes eleven local federations of charities.

One of the eleven is COSMO, Community Share of Mid Ohio and its figure is 10%--and I think that is 10% of the total charity. Then within that, other agencies get a percentage of that 10% (this is a guess, because I can't find the explanation--although the figure could be the percentage of their total budget for each group). Within this acronym is

the ACLU mid-Ohio chapter, 18.8%;

BRAVO, which works to eliminate violence perpetrated on the basis of sexual orientation and gender, 31%;

Kaleidoscope for gay, lesbian, bixexual, transgendered and questioning youth, 14.8%;

NARAL Pro-Choice (formerly known as National Abortion Rights Action League, then the National Abortion & Reproductive Rights Action League, but it still kills babies);

Coalition on sexual assault;

domestic violence network, 5.7%;

NOW education and Legal Fund, 12% (recently changed its name to Legal Momentum apparently to hide its connection to NOW);

Open Hand for AIDS, 15%;

Stonewall (gay rights), 19.1%;

a variety of environmental, disability, animal rights, and arts groups;

Camp Fire, 28%; Cat Welfare 1%; and Habitat for Humanity, 4.9%.

Why Cat Welfare and Habitat are included with ACLU and gay advocacy, and Camp Fire isn't with Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts over in the Central Ohio group, I have no idea, but if I were going to donate, this lump sum would turn me off big time, and I support both of them privately. My sweet kitty is a Cat Welfare graduate.

Then there is also in the booklet a United Way of Central Ohio with 67 agencies, and a Black United Fund of Ohio, which "supports projects serving critical human service needs of Ohioans." It includes 12 members agencies, but not one description says the agency is for blacks. Can you imagine the uproar if there were a whites-only category in United Way?

I think I blogged about this last year--can't find it--but about 20 years ago I was invited to a big party because I was in the top category of donors for the campus campaign. It was sponsored by a beer company. I never donated again.

2022 More storage

In December we were pitching things out and rearranging and repacking things (we've been here 4 years). Today at Meijer's I saw a very pretty set of nesting boxes--three--on sale for $10. The largest one is big enough to hold some of my watercolor tablets and odd size paper; the mid-size can hold some rolled up things and odd frame sizes; the smallest is empty for the moment, but will probably end up holding negatives, since those seem to be all over the place yearning for a spot to call home. If you've ever seen those storage shows on cable, they find the cutest boxes to put things in.



That isn't my painting. It's one of my husband's of a barn near Westerville, OH--although I'm not sure it is still there. But tomorrow I'm going back to my painting group--I've done nothing to speak of since the summer. Too much blogation.

I'm adjusting the time on this so I can keep the Thursday Thirteen on top.

storage
watercolor

2021 Why Mrs. Alito cried

Imagine having a gas-bag, womanizer, alcoholic, bantam rooster-brained killer, still living on his father's ill-gotten wealth, who never worked a day in his life, questioning your husband about his character.

Alito hearings
Senator Ted Kennedy

2020 Was thinking the same thing

Beth and I are on the same wave length today about Teddy. "I can't hear him speak, especially in such a condescending and morally superior manner that I don't think about Chappaquiddick Island." Blue Star Chronicles